EL PASO, Texas - Jason Williams was 8-of-13 for 22 points and had 10 rebounds in Texas-El Paso's 58-45 win over East Carolina on Saturday night.

Miguel Ayala added 11 points, including three 3-pointers, for UTEP (9-5, 2-0 USA). John Tofi had a team-high 11 rebounds.

East Carolina, which trailed 29-18 at the half, hit only about 33 percent of its shots while the Miners made almost 48 percent of theirs.

Despite missing its first seven shots the Pirates trailed just 4-0 at the first media timeout. Tyronne Beale finally got his team on the board at the 14:36 mark which began at 9-4 spurt by the Pirates to get them within a point, 10-9, with 10:21 left in the half.

Ayala made his first 3 of the night to push the lead back to six, 17-11, three minutes later. The Miners extended their lead to 11 at the half, 29-18, as it scored four points in a span of three seconds on tip-in by Tofi and lay-up by Edgar Moreno off a steal by Williams.

Ayala's second 3 started the second before Ingram scored ECU's first four points of the second half to trim the deficit to 10. That was as close as the Pirates could get the rest of the evening as UTEP led by as many as 17.

Jeremy Ingram scored a team-high nine points for East Carolina (6-9, 0-2).Senior Corey Rouse was limited to just six points, but still managed to grab a team-high nine rebounds.